Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Chinese: 海西蒙古族藏族自治州; Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠶᠢᠰᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠲᠥᠪᠡᠳ ᠦᠨᠳᠦᠰᠦᠲᠡᠨ ᠦ ᠥᠪᠡᠷᠲᠡᠭᠡᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠬᠤ ᠵᠧᠦ; Tibetan: མཚོ་ནུབ་སོག་རིགས་ཆ་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ།), locally also known as Qaidam Prefecture (Mongolian: ᠴᠠᠢᠢᠳᠠᠮ; Tibetan: ཚྭ་འདམ།; Chinese: 柴达木), is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the northern half of (as well as part of the southwest of) Qinghai Province, China. It has an area of 325,785 square kilometres (125,786 sq mi) and its seat is Delingha. The name of the prefecture literally means "west of (Qinghai) Lake."

Geladandong Mountain, the source of the Yangtze River, is located here.

History

After 1949, the People's Government of Dulan County was founded and the area was renamed Dulan Autonomous District (都兰自治区); in 1954, Dulan was renamed Haixi Mongol, Tibetan and Kazakh Autonomous District (海西蒙藏哈萨克族自治区) and in 1955, Haixi Mongol, Tibetan and Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (海西蒙藏哈萨克族自治州). In 1963, it was renamed "海西蒙古族藏族哈萨克族自治州" (with the "Tibetan" added to the official county name). In 1985, after the Kazakhs had returned to Xinjiang, it was again renamed to Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Demographics

As of the 2017 census, Haixi had 515,200 inhabitants.

The following is a composition of ethnic groups in the prefecture, taken in the 2010 Census.

EthnicityPopulationPercentage
Han322,99666.01%
Hui65,82813.45%
Tibetan53,49810.93%
Mongolian27,0435.53%
Tu/Monguor9,9522.03%
Salar4,6650.95%
Dongxiang2,7340.56%
Manchu6840.14%
Tujia3460.07%
Kazakh5250.11%
Others10660.22%

Subdivisions

Haixi directly governs 3 county-level cities and 3 counties.

Map
Golmud (city) ※ Delingha (city) Mangnai (city) Ulan County Dulan County Tianjun County Da Qaidam
NameHanziHanyu PinyinMongolian (Transcription from Mongolian)TibetanWylie Tibetan PinyinPopulation (2010)Area (km2)Density (/km2)
Delingha City (Delhi City)德令哈市Délìnghā Shìᠳᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Delekei qotaགཏེར་ལེན་ཁ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།gter len kha grong khyer Dêrlênka Chongkyir91,85561,6131.49
Golmud City (Ge'ermu City)格尔木市Gé'ěrmù Shìᠭᠤᠤᠯᠮᠤᠳ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Ɣool modu qotaན་གོར་མོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།na gor mo grong khyer Nakormo Chongkyir215,213123,4601.74
Mangnai City (Mangya City)茫崖市Mángyá Shìᠮᠠᠨᠭᠨᠠᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ Mangnai-yin qotaམང་ནེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར།mang ne grong khyer Mangnai Chongkyir33,45149,0000.63
Ulan County (Wulan County)乌兰县Wūlán Xiànᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Ulaγan siyanཝུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་wu'u lan rdzong Wu'ulain Zong38,72310,7843.59
Dulan County都兰县Dūlán Xiànᠳᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Dulaγan siyanཏུའུ་ལན་རྫོང་tu'u lan rdzong Tu'ulain Zong76,62350,0001.53
Tianjun County天峻县Tiānjùn Xiànᠲᠢᠶᠡᠨ ᠵᠢᠶᠦ᠋ᠨ ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ Tiyen ǰiyün siyanཐེན་ཅུན་རྫོང་then cun rdzong Têncün Zong33,92320,0001.70
Da Qaidam Administrative Zone (Ih'qaidam Administrative Zone)大柴旦行政委员会Dàcháidàn Xíngzhèng Wěiyuánhuìᠶᠡᠬᠡ ᠴᠠᠢᠢᠳᠠᠮ ᠤᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠭ ᠵᠠᠬᠢᠷᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠦ ᠵᠥᠪᠯᠡᠯ Yeke čayidam-un ǰasaγ ǰaqiraγan-ü ǰöblelཚྭ་འདམ་ཆེ་བའི་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་།tshwa 'dam che ba'i srid 'dzin u yon lhan khang13,67134,0000.40

Gallery

  • A picture taken in the southwestern part of the prefecture
  • The Qingzang Railway can be seen on the far left

Notable features

Notes

Further reading

  • A. Gruschke: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Amdo - Volume 1. The Qinghai Part of Amdo, White Lotus Press, Bangkok 2001. ISBN 974-480-049-6
  • Tsering Shakya: The Dragon in the Land of Snows. A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, London 1999, ISBN 0-14-019615-3

External links